Carla Chase, 22, worked as an extra while she was training as an actress at ArtsEd, a school in Chiswick, London. And it makes watching the end product a completely different experience. “It’s a bit of a giggle, it’s quite fun to spot yourself in the background,” adds Joe “But to a degree it ruins the film. You spend all your time looking for people you know.”Some extras do make the move to the foreground. “And obviously it’s quite fun.” One film the twins were in recently featured Phoebe Thomas as Lady Godiva riding naked through Oxford on a horse.Nudity notwithstanding, it can get a bit tedious on set “The worst part is the waiting,” says Joe. Although it does give you a chance to hang out with what he calls “the eclectic band of odd people” that regularly do extra work. Joe Reid, 20, and his twin brother, Oliver, have been doing extra work for the last four years, ranging from the first Bridget Jones film through to Green Wing and Casualty.The Reids got started after their mum and some of her friends worked as extras on a local shoot for a James Bond film.
In the four years since, Joe reckons he and his brother have done 15 different projects, totalling 60 days work, at an average of £70 to £100 a day “The work isn’t a big strain,” he admits. I had a chat with Cate Blanchett and Judi Dench in make-up, and the costume people are nice.”If you are not lucky enough to look like anyone famous, the next best thing is having a distinctive look of your own. Few things are more distinctive than being one of a pair of identical twins. “But a week later I heard back from them saying they had a job for me.”Hobbs gets paid around £100 a day, a long way from a star salary, although she has enjoyed some star treatment.
At one stage she even had her own trailer.”It was fun to do,” she says “The best part was meeting the celebrities. It was free to sign up, so she thought to herself, “why not?”.”I didn’t think anything would come of it. I’m not really a dramatic type, I just needed a job,” she says now. She had to turn it down as she was on a school trip.Hobbs started doing extra work last year after her mum saw an article in the paper. And the ideal is to look like someone more expensive than you are. Lucy Hobbs, 17, is still doing her A-levels, but has already worked on two films as a look-a-like for the strawberry-blonde beauty Cate Blanchett, and was offered work this summer as Michelle Pfeiffer’s body-double. If you are over 16, Berko should be able to find you work.
For the best pay, and most reliable employment, it pays to have a “look”.
